RESOURCES

Links to websites:

Songwriters Forum 
http://www.songwriterforums.com 
Wayland Patton's Songwriter Forums: A great place to learn the art and craft of songwriting. This is a recourse worth checking out.

ASCAP
http://www.ascap.com/ 
ASCAP is a membership association of over 145,000 composers, songwriters, lyricists, and music publishers of every kind of music and hundreds of thousands worldwide. ASCAP is the only U.S. performing rights organization created and controlled by composers, songwriters and music publishers, with a Board of Directors elected by and from the membership.

ASCAP protects the rights of its members by licensing and distributing royalties for the non-dramatic public performances of their copyrighted works. ASCAP's licensees encompass all who want to perform copyrighted music publicly. ASCAP makes giving and obtaining permission to perform music simple for both creators and users of music.

BMI
http://www.bmi.com/ 
BMI is an American performing rights organization that represents approximately 300,000 songwriters, composers and music publishers in all genres of music. The non-profit-making company, founded in 1940, collects license fees on behalf of those American creators it represents, as well as thousands of creators from around the world who chose BMI for representation in the United States. The license fees BMI collects for the "public performances" of its repertoire of approximately 4.5 million compositions - including radio airplay, broadcast and cable television carriage, Internet and live and recorded performances by all other users of music - are then distributed as royalties to the writers, composers and copyright holders it represents. 

SESAC
http://www.sesac.com/ 
Ellen Bligh Jones, Director, Corporate Relations, gives some background:
"SESAC was founded in 1930, making it the second oldest performing rights organization in the United States. SESAC's repertory, once limited to European and gospel music, has diversified to include today's most popular music, including dance hits, rock classics, the best of Latina music, the hottest jazz, the hippest country and the coolest contemporary Christian music. 

The Nashville Songwriters Foundation, Inc
http://www.nashvillesongwritersfoundation.com/ 
The Nashville Songwriters Foundation, Inc. is a non-profit foundation, dedicated to honoring and preserving the songwriting legacy of the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame. The NSF’s principal purposes are to educate, archive, and celebrate songwriting that is uniquely associated with the Nashville Music Community.

SGA
http://www.songwriters.org/ 
Organized in 1931, the SGA is the nation's largest and oldest songwriters organization, serving its members with the vital information and programs to further their careers and understanding of the music industry.

The Nashville Songwriters Association International 
http://www.nashvillesongwriters.com/ 
The Nashville Songwriters Association International consists of a body of creative minds including songwriters from all genres of music, amature and professional, who are committed to protecting the rights and future of the profession of songwriting,and to educate,elevate,and celebrate the songwriter and to act as a unifying force within the music community and the community at large.

U.S. Copyright Office
http://www.lcweb.loc.gov/copyright/ 
U.S. Copyright Office. We in the Copyright Office are proud to be part of a long tradition of promoting progress of the arts and protection for the works of authors. Our homepage has been created with the desire to serve the copyright community of creators and users, as well as the general public.

The Johnson City Tn., NSAI Workshop
http://www.songwriting-workshop.org/ 

Songwriter websites:
http://www.besonic.com/

http://songramp.com/

http://www.dmusic.com/

http://www.iuma.com/

http://www.soundclick.com/

Other Links:
http://www.cmaworld.com/

http://www.gospelmusic.org/

www.wholewheatradio.org/ 
Wayland Patton and I are on this radio station.